Sheriff Agrees To Give Lakes Deputies Familiar With Area

LAUDERDALE LAKES — Broward County Sheriff Nick Navarro has agreed to provide Lauderdale Lakes with reserve deputies who are familiar with the city.

City Council members have been upset that many of the deputies brought into Lauderdale Lakes to temporarily replace officers on sick leave or vacation have been deputies unfamiliar with the city.

``We had a deputy ask a resident where Hawaiian Gardens was, the largest condominium complex in the city,`` Mayor Alfonso Gereffi told Navarro during a meeting Thursday morning. ``We are getting replacements who don`t know our city.``

During the past two months, nearly every day a replacement officer has been called to work in Lauderdale Lakes, according to statistics provided by council member Lou Tenner.

``We`re getting complaints from the people in the city,`` Tenner said.

To correct the problem, Navarro said a list would be drawn of deputies who have served in Lauderdale Lakes in the past. When a position needs to be filled, attempts would be made to select one of the deputies from the list to do the work, the sheriff said.